Who Is Boo Radley A Hero

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Arthur Radley, also known as “Boo” Radley was a man of many mysteries at the beginning of the story. His apparent disappearance from society had led many people to make up stories about him, frightening and terrible stories that easily impressionable kids would take as fact. He was blamed for every crime that was unable to be solved and had no defense because he would not dare step outside, during day that is. As the story progresses though, seen through the eyes of Scout, a little girl, his character develops from a scary being shrouded in myth to a kind and gentle friend who will protect them from any harm that he can. In the beginning of the book we are introduced to him as a local legend for people living in Maycomb. In the eyes of Jem Finch, Boo was half man, half monster, all terror: ''Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained--if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time”. …show more content…

Atticus Finch, the father of the Finch family, explains to his children that Arthur Radley was a bit of a wild child growing up. He fell in with the wrong crowd, got in trouble with the law, and was forced to face the consequences. Arthur Radley's parents were given two options by a judge: send their son away to a state-run juvenile detention center or keep him at home under constant observation. The Radley family took the second option, marking the beginning of Arthur's life apart from the outside world. After a while, the longer he never came out of his house, the more myths and rumors about him spread until he became known as

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